The second Lebanon War exposed the bleak and harsh realities of inequality and discrimination faced by many Israelis. The government had long ago abandoned those living on the geographic and economic peripheries, including the elderly, the disabled, Arabs and new immigrants. The war did not create the injustices, discrimination or neglect, but it did expose them and they will not go away until the underlying causes are addressed. NIF aims to help rebuild a new Israel, a better Israel, in which the deep divisions in Israeli society are confronted and where the increasing trends towards economic disparity are reversed.
Northern Exposure
Initiated in response to Israel’s second Lebanon War, Northern Exposure is an effort to strengthen individual small-business owners in the North, and aims toward economic recovery and beyond. The Northern Exposure website, serves as a central resource of the project, featuring 150 artisans and micro-business owners.
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In the days after the war, NIF/SHATIL organized the North Star Forum, an umbrella organization of 50 social change organizations working to address the issues specific to the Galilee. Public forum were organized, giving public voice to war victims abandoned by their government. And the Forum became a voice for the North's disenfranchised when its findings were incorporated into the Israeli Comptroller's report on failures on the home front.
From its inception, the Forum focused on:
- Analyzing, publicizing and proposing new solutions for the issues that were so disastrously handled by the government during the crisis;
- Monitoring compensation, both public and philanthropic, to the many victims of the war to ensure fairness, equality and attention to the real needs of Northern Israelis;
- Monitoring the national budget, documenting governmental and quasi-establishment decisions, and ensuring public attention to new social spending policies by a government faced with the costs of the war.
The North Star Forum will continue its work on behalf of the forgotten citizens of Northern Israel by advocating for fair solutions to the tough issues left in the war’s wake.
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